As I continue to engage in this war with Crohn’s Disease, I do end up in battles with arthritis. Crohn’s drops arthritides into the bloodstream and so my Crohnies and I can get Crohn’s induced arthritis. Not fun.

What I learned from my Rheumatologist yesterday is that the Crohn’s ulcers themselves do not have to be active and flaring in order for the arthritis to be active and giving me grief. In other words, the underlying cause of everything doesn’t have to be visibly active in order for some of its spinoffs to be actively attacking my body.

Reality check. I had no clue. I thought it was all or nothing and that I just didn’t have tons of ab pain whenever one of the other Crohn’s symptoms was manifesting itself. Nope. They can creep up at any time, even when the main culprit appears dormant. So right now I’m applying this little nugget to life in general. Hits me like a brick.

How many times have I thought things weren’t so bad because the main thing wasn’t going nuts? How many times have I put up with little relational issues that were stressful and harmful, because I thought the real big relationship killer wasn’t that active right now, so I could handle this other stuff? The reality is that even if the big bad issue isn’t “active” it is still what is feeding and prompting all of the little things.

Time to take a careful look at what is plaguing me. Time to stop jumping from one side issue to the next and focus on correcting the one underlying thing that is spawning it all. This isn’t going to be easy. God give me grace.